Today's Top Alzheimer's News

March 26, 2014

NIH funding critical to US' leadership in biomedical research, "smart homes" helping to manage Alzheimer's, and more on the impact of Alzheimer's on women (read more).

Must reads

A March 26, 2014 The New Yorker article reported that Adolfo Suárez, the first democratically elected elected Prime Minster of Spain, died from Alzheimer's disease. According to the article, "A dashingly handsome man, Suárez lived his final years off the public stage, invisibly, suffering from Alzheimer’s. In 2005, his son announced that his father could no longer remember that he had once governed Spain."

A March 25, 2014 Center for American Progress article underscored the importance of NIH funding to maintaining the US' leadership in biomedical research. According to the article, "Aside from the very real impact that this reduction in grants is having on the lives of researchers who are unable to pursue their livelihoods, the impact on society at large will not be felt to a large extent either today or tomorrow, but it will absolutely be felt over the next decade or two. In order to put NIH funding back on track, significant new investments must be made in the coming years to cement the federal government’s commitment to biomedical innovation."

A March 25, 2014 Business Standard article reported on the evolution of "smart homes" to help detect symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. According to the article, "Researchers have developed a system of sensors which when fitted in a home can monitor changes in a person's habits and routine to help assess whether they are suffering from a neurodegenerative disease…Due to the fact that the early stages of a degenerative disease such as Alzheimer's are often manifested by behavioural changes in the patient, the sensors can assess the possibility that the user is suffering the early stages of such a disease by monitoring significant deviations from past behavioural patterns."

More on Alzheimer's and women

A March 25, 2014 Forbes article highlighted the disproportionate impact of Alzheimer's on women, particularly in the workplace. According to the article, "At age 65, women have a one in six chance for developing Alzheimer’s, while men have a one in 11 chance, according to Angela Geiger, chief strategy officer of the Alzheimer’s Association...The Alzheimer’s report just released found six times as many women than men went from full-time work to part-time work in order to care for a loved one with dementia and twice as many of these working women (vs. working men) gave up their jobs altogether to become full-time caregivers."

Why 2020?

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s has retained its goal of stopping Alzheimer’s by 2020 rather than endorsing the goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease that calls for preventing and effectively treating the disease by 2025. While we support the national plan and its goals, we believe, as most every family touched by Alzheimer’s disease believes, that preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's by 2025 is simply too long a wait for concrete progress. There are promising avenues of drug discovery and development that will, if successful, deliver a means of slowing or deferring Alzheimer's symptoms by 2020. By voicing the urgency felt by so many families, we will pressure researchers and industry to do all in their power to make that happen.